Garment cover



Nov. 12, 1963 c. M. CREE I 3,110,423

GARMENT COVER Filed Sept. 26, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 F g: .1 l8

1- r 4 IT TL 'i2 o \Afl-l- 1-l 4 I" W lm x I my: 1 W i N, N 995% IN V EN TOR. C HARLES M C BY C- M. CREE GARMENT COVER Nov. 12, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 26, 1961 INVENTOR. CYHARLES M. CREE B M United States Patent 3,110,428 GARMENT COVER Charles M. Cree, 347 Custer Ava, Evanston, Ill. Filed Sept. 26, 1961, Ser. No. 140,882 1 Claim. (Q1. 223-98) This invention relates to a garment cover for use in laundries, dry cleaning plants and like places for covering the upper portion of a garment suspended from a garment hanger.

Heretofore in the art, many different forms of garment covers have been designed and used but they have all been subject to various objectionable features and among these has been the fact that such prior garment hangers have been difficult to handle and slow and awkward to apply in use. Base and speed of application are particularly significant in the use of garment hanger covers for the reason that in laundries, dry cleaning plants and the like, where such garment hanger covers are used, the garment covers are commonly applied as they are moved with the hangers along an endless conveyer, or they are supported on posts, rods or rails, and it is important that the garment cover be capable of being applied expeditiously and with a minimum of time and effort.

Another problem involved in the use of prior garment covers is that it has commonly been necessary to remove the garment and its hanger from its support to enable the garment cover to be applied thereto.

An additional problem which has been experienced in the use of prior garment hangers is that it has not been possible to use them to cover more than one garment whereas it is frequently desirable to have a plurality of garments sent to a laundry or dry cleaning plant returned to the customer in and as a single package.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved garment hanger cover which is simple and inexpensive in construction and is so designed that it may be readily and expeditiously arranged upon a garment suspended from a garment hanger suspended from a post, rod, rail or endless conveyer in a laundry, dry cleaning plant or the like, without removing the garment or its hanger from its support, and with a minimum of time and effort on the part of the operator.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved garment cover for use on garments suspended from garment hangers in laundn'es, dry cleaning plants and the like, in which the garment cover may be expeditiously arranged upon one or more garments by a simple operation of wrapping it over the upper shoulder and neck portions of the garment or garments and around the hook of the garment hanger and then securing in position of use by the application of a pressure-sensitive adhesive coated securing tongue or tab portion formed as an integral part of the garment cover and engageable with a surface thereof.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a new and improved garment hanger cover which is adapted to cover a plurality of garments suspended on garment hangers suspended from a supporting unit, such as a post, rod, rail or the like, so that a plurality of garments may be covered by a single garment cover and returned to the customer as a single package.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claim and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings which by way of illustration show a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the principles thereof, and what I now consider to be the best mode in which I have contemplated applying these principles. Other embodimen-ts of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be "ice 2 made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a rear elevational view showing -a typical embodiment of the new garment cover mounted in position of use upon a garment suspended from a garment hanger;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the new garment hanger cover;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view thereof on line 33 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the blank shown in FIG. 2 as seen from the side opposite that shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but showing the new garment hanger cover applied to a plurality of garments suspended from garment hangers; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the new garment hanger cover as shown in FIG. 5.

A preferred embodiment of the new garment cover is illustrated in the drawings, where it is generally indicated at 13', and comprises a blank or body 11 which may be formed by die-cutting it from paper, plastic resinous sheet material, such as cellophane, or similar suitable material, and includes a main and generally triangular-shaped center panel 12, a side panel 13 which is integrally connected to the main and center panel 12 along a fold line 14, and a second generally triangulanshaped side panel 15 which is integrally connected to the main and center panel 12 along a fold line 16. A recessed or cut-out garment hookreceiving portion 17 is formed centrally in the blank or body 11 between the side panels 13 and 15. Integrally attached to one of the side panels, namely the side panel 15, is a securing tongue or tab portion 20 which is shown as being generally rectangular in form but may take various other forms and shapes. The securing tongue or tab 20 has a coating 21 of a suitable pressure-sensitive adhesive material on its (-in use) inner surface. This coating 21 may be in the form of *a continuous film of the pres sure-sensitive adhesive or it may take the form of strips of pressure-sensitive adhesive coated material adhesively secured to the panel 13, as shown in 'FIGS. 2, 4 and 5.

The area 22 to which the pressure-sensitive adhesive coating 21 on the securing tongue or tab portion 20 is to be adhesively attached is indicated at 22 in the drawings, and is shown as being rectangular in shape although it may take any desired form corresponding to the shape of the securing tongue or tab portion 20 on the panel 15. The area 22 may be provided with a pressure-sensitive adhesive coating which may be in the form of a continuous film, as shown for the coating 21 on the securing tab or tongue portion 20, or it may take the form of a series of parallel paper or fabric strips 23 which are adhesively secured on their inner surfaces to the area 22 of the panel 13 and each of which has a coating of pressure-sensitive adhesive material on their outer surfaces which is adapted to be adhesively secured to the pressure-sensitive adhesive coating 21 on the securing tongue or tab portion 20 of the panel 15.

The new garment cover may be die-cut from paper stock, plastic resinous sheet material, such as cellophane,

or the like, in the form of the blank or body shown in FIG. 2, and the pressure-sensitive adhesive coating 21 may be applied to the (in use) inner surface of the securing tongue or tab 241, and the pressure-sensitive coated strips 23 adhesively secured at their inner surfaces to the area 22 of the panel 13 by means of any suitable adhesive.

The blank or body 11 of the new garment hanger cover 10 may then be folded into a generally triangular form by folding the side panels 13 and 15 along the fold line 14 and 16 over the center panel 12, for stacking and storing in a minimum of space, or it may be stored and stacked in extended form, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4.

In use, the new garment cover may be readily applied to the upper portion of a single garment, such as 19, suspended on a garment hanger 18, by the simple, easy and expeditious operation of merely manually wrapping the body 11 of the garment cover around the upper portion of the garment 10 with the center panel 12 arranged over the front of the garment and with the side panels 13 and 15 extending across the back of the garment, as shown in FIG. 1, and with the hook portion 18 of the garment hanger projecting through the hook-receiving recess 17, as shown, so that the garment cover 10 is positioned in the manner in which it is shown in FIGS. 1 and 5. To complete the assembly of the garment cover 10 around the upper portion of the garment 19, it is merely necessary to bend the adhesive coated securing tongue or tab 20 relative to the panel 13 and to engage the pressuresensitive adhesive coating 21 thereon with the pressuresensitive adhesive coated strips 23 which are arranged in the area 22 of the panel 13. The pressure-sensitive adhesive coating 21 of the adhesive securing tongue or tab 20 will then adhere to the pressure-sensitive adhesive coated strips 23 and thus complete the assembly of the garment cover 10 around the upper portion of the garment 19 and its hanger 18.

One of the advantages of the new garment hanger cover is that it may be used to cover a plurality of garments so that a plurality of garments sent in to a laundry or dry cleaning plant may be returned to the customer wrapped in a single garment cover and as a single package. The present invention lends itself to this usage and is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 as used to cover a plurality of garments 19a each of which is mounted on a separate garment hanger 18a.

In order to use the new garment cover 10 for the purpose of covering a plurality of garments 19a it is merely necessary to wrap the new garment cover 10 about a plurality of garments 19a, each arranged on separate hangers 18a, and to spread or expand the new garment cover 10 somewhat compared to its position as used to cover a single garment 19, as in FIGS. 1 and 3. This is accomplished, as shown in FIG. 5, by positioning the securing tongue or tab portion 20 somewhat inwardly relative to the then outer edge 24 of the area 22 of the panel 13, and the pressure-sensitive adhesive coated strips 23 thereon, and then fastening the secun'ng tongue or tab portion 20 of the panel 15 to the pressure-sensitive adhesive coated strips 23 so that a portion of the pressure-sensitive resinous adhesive coated surface of each of the strips 23 is not covered by the securing tongue or tab portion 20. This effects an enlargement or expansion of the new garment hanger cover 10 and enables it to be extended around a plurality of garments 10a and thus enables a plurality of such garments 19a to be covered by a single one of the new garment covers 10 and returned to the customer as a single package.

It will thus be seen that the new garment cover may be expeditiously assembled upon the upper portion of a single garment or a plurality of garments each carried by a garment hanger, as 18 or 18a, with a minimum of time and efiort and in such a manner as not to require any particular skill on the part of the operator and without removing the garment or its hanger from its support, and in that in those instances in which the new garment hanger 4 cover 10 is used to cover a plurality of garments it may be readily wrapped therearound as easily and expeditiously as when used to cover a single garment.

It will thus be seen from the foregoing description, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, that the present invention provides a new and improved garment cover having the desirable advantages and characteristics and accomplishing its intended objects including those hereinbefore pointed out and others which are inherent in the invention.

I claim:

A garment cover for covering the neck and shoulder portions of one or a plurality of garments suspended on a garment hanger formed from a single blank of flexible sheet material comprising a generally rectangular-shaped body having inner and outer surfaces and including a generally triangular-shaped central panel having a pair of laterally extending and generally triangular-shaped side panels integrally connected thereto along fold lines, each panel including terminal edge portions defining the exterior edges of the blank, said body having a recessed portion arranged centrally thereof between the said laterally extending generally triangular-shaped side panels, one of said laterally extending generally triangular-shaped side panels having a securing tongue portion formed integrally therewith and projecting laterally therefrom at one side of, and in a direction away from, the said centrally arranged recessed portion of said body, and said securing tongue portion including terminal side and end edge portions, the side edges of the tongue being parallel to the terminal edge of its panel and having a pressure-sensitive adhesive coating on its inner surface, and adapted to overlie the outer surface of said other panel with the tongue positioned substantially centrally of the side panels and central panel, and the said other one of said laterally extending and generally triangular-shaped side panels having a portion of its outer surface provided with a pressure-sensitive adhesive coating, said coating on the outer surface being coextensive with the coating on the securing tongue portion of the area of the coating as defined by its side edges being parallel to the terminal edges of its respective panel, whereby the central panel and the side panels may be wrapped around the neck and shoulder portions of one or a plurality of garments suspended from a garment hanger by pressing a portion of said pressuresensitive adhesive coating on the inner surface of said securing tongue on the said one of said side panels into engagement with at least a portion of said pressure-sensitive adhesive coating on the outer surface of the said other one of said side panels.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,017,282 Call et a1. Feb. 13, 1912 1,589,503 Youngblood June 22, 1926 2,001,624 Moore May 14, 1935 2,135,277 Coney Nov. 1, 1938 2,172,206 Katz Sept. 5, 1939 2,285,726 Kohl June 9, 1942 2,566,232 Madsen Aug. 28, 1951 2,913,104 Parker Nov. 17, 1959 

